A very short game

Once again, our intrepid reporter ventured into battle, this time to the North-West of Britannia in AD367. In what has become known as the “Barbarian Conspiracy” the Picts, Saxons and Scotti are all making extensive raids on Britain in what seems a co-ordinated fashion. How these uncivilized brutes are managing this is a mystery. The scene was set near the town of Luguvalium (modern Carlisle), where on officer was returning from an inspection of the Wall defences further East, unaware of a Scotti force waiting in ambush. Our resident bearded, hairy-arsed barbarian aka Tony took the Scotti, with the clean shaven, upstanding Simon leading the forces of civilisation. Scenario was “Raiding a Border Tower” from Two Fat Lardies’ “Dux Britanniarum”.

The essence of the game was for Jovinus, one of the Roman Leaders, plus two of his warrior units to make it down the length of the board to the safety of the fort and the rest of the covering Romano-British under their Lord Fullaufades. The British had a 3D6 head-start down the table, but with rolls totalling only 7” seemed more to be on a pleasant country stroll than a race for safety.

The Scotti got lucky and their Lord’s deployment roll put them almost adjacent to the British. The first token out of the bag saw the Scotti Lord order his warriors to smash into the British. Tony played “Carpe Diem” and “aggressive Charge” cards which meant a successful flank attack with multiple bonuses and a broken British formation. Seventeen dice were rolled as the two raider warrior units, Fergus McDrool the Lord and his Champion Bucan hit the British. Six dead, multiple shocks and a wounded Jovinus was the result.

The British tried to fight back but it was all too little. After the British tried to flee, the Scotti caught them and attacked again. The result was more dead and the British leader captured. Game over. Fullaufades could only look on in despair from the other end of the table. A stunning Scotti victory.

It must be said the randomly determined deployment was bad luck for the British and extremely fortunate for the Scotti. The Scotti cards were also very favourable, and the dice rolls poor for the British and great for the Scotti. However, it was unlikely that even with better dice rolls the British could have escaped for much longer. But to be all over in one turn….

Sunday sees Greg and Simon trying out the draft rules for “Cold War Skirmish” from Ambush Alley, and Chris and Tony honing their Bolt Action skills in readiness for the Lost Ark Competition in September. I wonder who will have a more rewarding gaming experience. Maybe, we shall hear more at 17.00 on Sunday!”

A strange game of “Dux”. I’m pretty sure we played it correctly. Unless I got the deployment wrong, the British seemed doomed from turn 1.

Simon